Over 20 Nordica, Xfly planes to be leased to other carriers this summer
State-owned Estonian airlines Nordica and Xfly are to lease a total of 22 of their aircraft to other carriers over the summer period, the company says, while parent company Nordic Aviation Group (NAG) plans to expand to a 50-aircraft outfit in the next five years.
NAG board chair, Jan Palmer, told ERR that the airlines to which the Nordica and Xfly planes will be leased are Scandinavian carrier SAS, Portugal's flagship airline TAP, Marabu Airlines (Germany), and Cyprus Airways.
"By summer 2023, we will have a total of 22 aircraft leased out," Palmer said.
Meanwhile, NAG's communications manager, Toomas Uibo, said that both Nordica and Xfly's business models are based primarily on long-term cooperation with major international carriers, who will operate the flights under the customers' brands, an arrangement known in the industry as wet-leasing.
In addition, Uibo said, Xlfy is also providing some short-term support to Latvian national carrier airBaltic.
Uibo said: "As of today, the NAG operates in eight different European countries and offers work to more than 700 aviation specialists."
"In addition to Tallinn, our hubs are also situated in Stockholm, Copenhagen, Aarhus, Turku, Sofia, Vilnius, Lisbon, Munich and Hamburg. The company plans to expand abroad in the future as well, beyond Europe, to make our business truly global," he said.
Within a four-to-five-year perspective, he added, NAG plans to more than double its fleet, to 50 aircraft, adding that there is no shortage of demand: "Right now, we have more cooperation offers than we can handle," Uibo added.
Nordica and Xfly at present operate Airbus 320s (pictured), Bombardier CRJ900 and ATR 72s.
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Editor: Andrew Whyte, Aleksander Krjukov
